LTT's death and it's effects

[meauxwalk]

Just a question and some thoughts....

 

When LTT killed himself, I've always assumed that he balefired himself.  If he did balefire himself, one would think that due to his strength he cut his life quite long way back.  If this is the case, wouldn't the things he did have changed (ie: killing all of his family/friends etc)?  Thoughts/comments anyone?

[Angreal Meaker]

He didn't balefire himself.He just drew too much of the OP and burned himself....

[Guest leebarr]

I always thought that LTT was so upset with him self he drew down lighting to kill himself (suicide).

[Guest cw]

He did commit suicide.  But it was by not Channelling the Power he drew in. He just kept drawing until he literally burned himself to ash.  There was probably a fault line where he was that he disrupted sufficiently to cause massive geological changes.

[Guest leebarr]

I maybe wrong but I thought a bolt of light connected the earth to the sky causeing the valcano to form.

[bjclinton]

He did commit suicide.  But it was by not Channelling the Power he drew in. He just kept drawing until he literally burned himself to ash.  There was probably a fault line where he was that he disrupted sufficiently to cause massive geological changes.

 

Actually, he did commit suicide. Burning yourself out doesn't mean a bolt of hot white "something" flies down from above killing you and destroying anything around you (which is why Ishamael traveled....)

 

he's referring to the prologue in TEOTW......and he did draw the most amount of the power that he probably ever drew unaided.....

 

and then he called "something" down from above that blasted through him, killing himself and it continued down into the ground creating Dragonmount.

 

However, to answer your question, while it probably "looked" like balefire in color, it wasn't. If it was balefire, it would have burned LTT's thread out of the pattern. Also, it wouldn't have caused the mountains to heave the way they did- instead, it would have cut holes through them.

[RobertAlexWillis]

Two points. 

 

Lews Therin died by Power overload, not anything he wove.  Apparently, for some unknown reason, if you draw enough of the Power it has a physical effect on your body (which is what burned Aginor to ash).  I didn't like it either, but it seems thats what RJ meant.

 

http://www.wotmania.com/faqtopic.asp?ID=58

 

Second, although balefire would have burned Lews Therin's current thread out of the Pattern, it would not destroy his thread for all time.  People who are balefired can be reborn.  They're no more or less dead than anyone else ... they're just dead further back in time.

 

The description of balefire leaves us one important question: does "burning one's thread from the Pattern" mean that one's soul is destroyed forever, and one can never be reborn? John Novak finally got an answer for this from RJ at a post-TPOD book-signing [Northern Virginia - 21 November, 1998]:

 

    Balefire: I'm right. (This was my question) What this means is, if someone is balefired, the Dark One can't reincarnate them. But they CAN be spun back out into the wheel as normal. Balefire is NOT the eternal death of the soul. He also made a comment to the effect that even in the absence of balefire, there may be circumstances where the Dark One cannot bring someone back.

 

http://www.steelypips.org/wotfaq//2_nondark/2.3_one-power/2.3.07_balefire.html

 

So, the fact that Lews Therin was reborn is not evidence that he did not use balefire.  But, the fact that Jordan apparently said he didn't use balefire, is.

[aevogt]

Based on it's very nature, a person can't BF him/her self. 

 

The actions of a person or thing that has been BF'd no longer happened, so a person who hit himself with BF would no longer have hit himself with Balefire as soon as he hit himself with Balefire. 

 

The paradox would be instantaneous so I don't think the weave could even be generated. 

 

I checked the FAQ on Wotmania and found nothing on this